Sleep your love handles away
ENOUGH REST COUPLED WITH JUST A LITTLE BIT OF EXERCISE CAN DO WONDERS
Idon’t know about you, but the year has flown by, and seemingly gets faster each year. Time, or lack of it, seems to be the biggest obstacle which keeps people from sticking to their routine. Never mind the activity you are doing in the routine, it just seems that more and more obstacles are thrown in your path, and then you have some quick lessons on how to juggle. Your health often bears the burden of the choices you make.
What happens if you had to say to yourself: “I have to get up earlier and dedicate 20 to 30 minutes to getting my health and fitness in check”. Can you sacrifice watching Game of Thrones immediately, and save it for the weekend?” The answer may lie in how you answer that. If your priorities are fun and entertainment, then don’t complain about the size of your bum and belly or your health. If your priorities however are to be a healthier, fitter and a sexier version of yourself, then you need to make the right choice by getting to bed earlier and getting those much-needed eight hours of sleep, so that you can hit the workout with full energy.
By now you should know that the reason that you have bulges, is because of too much sugar, portion sizes and a big one, lack of sleep. Getting less than eight hours of sleep a night dramatically increases your chances of becoming obese. The condensed version is, your body craves sleep, but instead of you giving it sleep, your body interprets it as being hungry and hence you eat more and the result is you get fatter.
Forbes did some research on what some of the routines of highly successful people were, and what they did before 7.30am. Astonishingly they are up at 6am and performing an exercise routine. A study conducted at Eastern Ontario Research Institute found that people who made time twice a week for as little as 10 minutes, felt socially, academically and athletically more competent. In another study, the University of Bristol found that people who exercised daily had more energy and had a more positive outlook. What was also interesting is that after 10 minutes your body starts to release GABA, a neurotransmitter that makes your brain feel soothed and keeps you in control of not wanting to have the second block of chocolate. The one research says twice a week, but that is only a study, and I can assure you that if you are only training twice a week, it will end up being futile. You must commit to 20 or 30 minutes each day to work on the new you. A strategy that you can use from top performing athletes is to detach your emotions from how you are feeling right before wanting to train. It is an ugly time because you are finding every reason why you should not train. From your kids needing you, to “I am going to be late for work”, to you are feeling tired and exhausted. Whatever the excuse, don’t give in to emotion. Count back from five seconds and when you reach one second, MOVE! Act, and put on your trainers and move closer to getting out of that door. If you are wondering if 20 minutes can do anything for you, then the answer is “Yes”. Every little bit of stepping or moving will help, but you must build yourself up to a point where you can maximise your 20 minutes. Adding extra time to your training is not an option, rather look to how hard you can push yourself in those 20 minutes and once your body adapts, then raise the intensity levels even more. Before long you will be smashing your session like a machine and you will be loving yourself for it. Successful people can’t control their business days most of the time because there are so many areas they are looking after, developing or problem solving, so exercising in the early evenings is often not an option, so they make sure they focus on what they can control and that means waking up earlier to train. Try it out for four weeks. You will become hooked, have high energy levels and feel sexier.